A clever person with no principles, especially a politician. American slang first recorded in 1845, when it may have meant something else entirely.
What it really means
A snollygoster is a clever operator with no principles — usually, in the way the word is used, a politician.
It is American, and it is first recorded in 1845, spelled as two words: snolly goster. That is about where the certainty ends. Etymonline calls it perhaps a fanciful coinage in Western big talk — the tall-tale style of the American frontier, which produced a whole family of words invented purely for the pleasure of saying them.
More interesting is that the earliest use may not mean what it means now. Etymonline notes that the original sense is unclear, and may have been closer to an unstoppable person or thing. The meaning that stuck — shrewd, slippery, unprincipled — came afterwards, and it stuck to politics because politics kept supplying examples.
Where the sound came from is a matter of guesses. Wiktionary records two: the snallygaster, a mythical beast of Maryland folklore, and Pennsylvania German. Neither is proven.
It has a habit of coming back whenever it is needed. In 2009, during the British parliamentary expenses scandal, it briefly turned up in British commentary — an American frontier word, a century and a half old, found to be exactly the right size.
Where it comes from
Myths & misconceptions
Snollygoster has always meant an unprincipled politician.
That is the sense it settled into. Its earliest recorded use is harder to read — Etymonline says the original meaning is unclear and may have been closer to 'an unstoppable person or thing'. The political sense came later.
How it connects
- Hornswogglewhat a snollygoster does — the American verb for cheating, from 1829.
Questions people ask
- What does snollygoster mean?
- A shrewd person who is not guided by principle, most often a politician. It is 19th-century American slang.
- Where does it come from?
- Nobody is sure. It is first recorded in 1845 in American English, probably as a deliberately comic invention. Wiktionary notes suggested links to the snallygaster, a mythical Maryland beast, and to Pennsylvania German.